my first guest actually my second or third guest tonight depending on how you score the first bit
and then buddy um is a very talented actor who starred in a tv series called bosom buddies and
is currently starring in the runaway smash hit film of the decade splash please welcome tom hanks
now that's that's great that's going to make you feel terrific these folks are really
buddy hack it coming in like that you bet that was it godfather a soul comes
in sits down i thought that's it boy it's a 90-minute special anybody you thought you
were not going to be on the show huh me and the nurses we had a date we were going down to london
that's an interesting sight isn't it seeing about six or seven nurses clustered together
there it's like the saint patrick's day parade you know hey look oh whoa hey roosevelt's yeah
hey great oh here comes linux hills it's okay this is uh this movie is really
this movie is really big time stuff isn't it uh as you check your business page yeah
wall street journal but they're saying that it's uh it's saved disney motion
pictures lots no save it's it's a bit i think pete's dragon pretty much did that for him
so this is just gravy then to say that it saved disney studios they're a very cash
rich organization yeah you know if if one of their movies loses money they just like take 10 minutes
worth of revenues from their parks and say yeah we got to cover it don't worry about it so but it's
made 82 million today what's the big deal but it uh really pumped new life into it yeah they
did well it was you know it was very nice they had a nice hands-off attitude towards
us while we were making it you know we just kind of showed up and they gave us the money
now when you were doing this film is this your first film no what was your first film my first
film was originally titled the uninvited when i started making it it was called blood wedding
after we made it it was called shriek and by the time it made the theaters it was called he knows
you're alone and it's an epic motion picture uh orson welles was involved for a few weeks
he dropped out but was was he involved in a in a directorial capacity he was a caterer and uh
the man's a legend now the the movie was actually released it's called he knows he
knows you're alone and i i played the know-it-all love interest who comes in and poo poo is the idea
that this woman is actually being hounded by a killer yeah uh i was and i had three days on it
they said tom thanks a lot about a month later i'm walking just down 7th avenue and i bump into
the producers of the film tells you something about the producers they walk on 7th avenue
and they said tom tom oh jeez we're going to bring you back we're going to have you killed
we ran out of money i'm sorry i said joe for you i would have come in and been
had my head severed or anything it would have been a freebie joe you should give me a call
did they happy to did the film do any business at all it did business for about three days
they they released it in every other theater in america uh hoping to get a big weekend out
of it they got a big saturday and it was gone i i saw it and i saw it in glendale california
and swear to god at the end of the movie the audience was yelling get her get her yeah
and glendale glendale is not a tough town no it's not it's a bunch of cream puffs down there you
know yeah used car salesmen in the like well this is great now the the bosom buddies now
this how long was this show on abc it was on two two sagas as we called it yeah two seasons now
was that uh are you happy now that you don't have to mess around with putting on uh women's
clothing and taking it off and putting it on we we were on of course long before
tootsie ever came around that's right we instigated the whole tootsie groundswell that came
about now had we stayed on the air of course the the gentleman at the abc uh the american broadcast
or al's broadcasting company most people don't realize a guy named al owns i didn't realize that
no he drives up and says this is my company al's broadcasting company now had they kept us on for
just another half a season of course they could have cashed in on this whole thing for sure and
i know any minute now we're going to get the call from the executives they're going to apologize so
tom i'm sorry i don't know how it happened it was a breakdown of communication a scheduling problem
i'm sure that we'd love to have you back and they'll offer us big bucks and we'll say no yeah
so good for you thanks paul hi there uh tom hanks is here now tomorrow on this program
actress stephanie zimbalist do you know stephanie zimbals no i do not lovely woman she will be here
also comedian larry miller and uh dr richard brandt i know here fun with rockets with dr
brandt and viewer mail later in this half hour jersey kozinski will be here jean beckwith is
here to blow those smoke bubbles and uh we have a nurse's uniform fashion show it's a
wow what a show that's right and also tomorrow night if you have tickets for the show i know
you don't believe me but if you come here at the regular time the place will be a ghost town so try
and get here a little early now let's take a look at some of the film oh splash no i've seen it and
if we release one more clip every scene from the movie will have been released to talk shows
so there can be like a pirate video made of the film and disney loses like millions of
dollars in video cassette rentals so let's not and just forget it pay five bucks okay
no let me let me get this right you're worried that people via these shows will piece together
all of the clips and have their own version of the movie at home that's right dave yes okay
now i know we have a clip don't we we have one here is it a good clip is it funny is it
representational of this man's fine work yes all right now do you want to see it or not no i don't
i've seen the movie i've seen the clips eight million times merv beat you to the punch in the
first place so let's just forget about it oh he did did he but did he have the woman
blowing smoke bubbles i don't think so now tom you really don't want to see the clouds okay
then at least tell us what we would have seen in the clip oh wacky stuff this is
ladies and gentlemen let me point out that this is a free country if this man doesn't
want to show the clip he's certainly in no way obligated to show the clip now
let's talk about the filming have i just lost them for some reason oh no no no no
no you're you're still beloved in there tell me about the making of the movie
or do you not even want to talk no i know the making the move was
fine a lot of it was done under water what a substantial amount of it was done underwater
problem does that present for actors uh living like surviving is a problem for the actors
we had we had what we were called toe shots now which consisted of a boat dragging me
underwater to make it seem as though we're jetting through effortlessly as we swim off to nirvana now
originally about 82 of these shots were scheduled to be in the film they ended up using one but that
didn't stop them from shooting the other 81 that were necessary as long as they got the boat as
long as they get the one now this consisted of a me putting on a body harness under my clothes they
attached a monofilament line to me via the body harness which ran through a pulley and then up to
the surface which was connected to a boat now and then at 18 signals boom the boat would take off
i would be dragged underwater and would be looks as though i'm flying sure not unlike uh superman
now we were doing this many times it worked
finally headed down to clockwork everybody was very safe the last
day of shooting we moved to a different location and had clarence the new boat driver
clarence was the kind of guy when he came over to get his box lunch he forgot to tie up his boat
and we're eating our lunch today uh clarence oh my boat yeah and he had to dive in and swim after his
boat which was by then like 30 miles away little tiny boat and spec on the horizon well we have to
hold our breaths and you feel all sorts of tugs you get the feeling okay i'm being pulled now
trying to let go of the regulator breathe good now look like you're swimming act be wonderful
we're swimming to paradise as we zip over to our safety divers who pop it into our mouths and we
can breathe again under these two atmospheres that's a very big thing well when clearance
the first time clarence did it we got the signal i feel myself slowly being pulled out comes the
regulator and are getting ready to pick up speed and we don't and we're just by then the i'm
out of range i realize i have about three and a half miles to go to the other air tank and it's
not going to happen now this was the signal for i'm out of air to the other safety divers
that were down there the next day in dalys we saw a shot of a rock underwater that was
there for like three and a half minutes until finally my head comes around going
i the bruises are still healing from my chest i broke three ribs it was okay i'm all right
and there will be no lawsuits so good the movie's making somebody i think you have
a nice attitude about all of this well i i want to work and i want to continue and uh
anything anything beats going back to the post well it's uh congratulations uh on this terrific
success thank you great thank you very much very funny gentlemen nice to meet you nice to meet you
hotel accommodations for most guests of late night with david letterman furnished
by berkshire place at dunphy classic hotel in exchange for this announcement
for reservations at dunphy hotels in the u.s and europe call toll-free 800-228-212
okay now i'm sorry we ran out of time so we'll have
to have the nurses back another night and i i know